Responding to the
Rod Welch letter
on May 4, 2000 commending scope and utility of
tools for OHS and DKR set out in
my letter
earlier today, and asking for
examples of work product...]

I wish that these tools were actually in existence, but they're mostly on
paper. One of the big reasons for this is UI constraints, something I
briefly mentioned at my April 6 presentation. The first tool I started
building was the bibliography manager, and I naturally tried to whip
together a quick, forms-based UI using Tk. It quickly became apparent
that, even with highly structured data like bibliographic information, a
forms-based UI was not going to be adequate. For notes and summaries, a
forms-based UI is unthinkable. My temporary solution was to write
command-line tools. I plan on experimenting with the PSGML emacs mode,
but I haven't gotten around to that yet. Nevertheless, this experience
emphasizes the need for a good, extensible XML editor as the basis for
the OHS's editing component.

Incidentally, I was much inspired by the journal feature in your DKR
tool, Rod. (Which, of course, Doug had also developed many years
earlier.) For everyday tasks, journals are a fantastic complement to
scheduling. Scheduling reveals your plan, journals reveal the extent to
which you have achieved your plan, an important element of knowledge
accumulation and bootstrapping.

Sincerely,

-Eugene

Eugene Eric Kim
eekim@eekim.com

Eugene Eric Kim
eekim@eekim.comhttp://www.eekim.com/
"Writer's block is a fancy term made up by whiners so they
can have an excuse to drink alcohol." --Steve Martin